Neither Meerschaum nor Galvanized.

If you have a moment, or perhaps several moments, you should direct your browser to Yahoo! Pipes and take a deeper look at the information sandbox assembled there. I had initially passed it over, thinking that it was merely a very tunable reader…and I suppose ultimately it is. But it is so much more than that.

Pipes are old news for Unix users, who use them to route outputs to filter commands or to perform database functions on text tables. Yahoo! Pipes brings the same concept of pipes + filters to create a robust system of aggregating multiple RSS sources into a single feed that can be published for general consumption, placed on a MyYahoo! page, or even routed (via subscription) to the RSS reader of your choice. The resultant mashup of blogs, scholarly research, “regular old” news articles, etc. could represent a significant competitive edge, or at least a jump on a standard news cycle.

Just to cite an example, I have a pipe that delivers anything the Harvard Business School creates that is tagged “Web 2.0” or has “Web 2.0” in its title. We still don’t know what the term means, but I feel confident that Hahvahd might be the school that figures it out, so I’d like to stay apprised. I have another pipe that delivers business, creative, and technological news related to Pixar. I know when the trailers are out, what they’re for, and what else is in the pipeline (heh) for my personal heroes. This pipe in particular shows how powerful Pipes can be - it takes gigantic news feeds and filters them for just what I want. Even if (as is often the case) I want to read a lot of the other stuff I’m filtering out, when I want my Pixar news, it is there on a platter, no search required.

Users of online databases like Lexis-Nexis will find nothing new in this - after all, it’s just another mode of a “routine search” for specific terms, and utilizing similar (though not specifically Boolean) operators. The point, I suppose, is that all such databases rely on a limited (though very large) pool of information. Pipes is limited only by the number of feeds you input - it can encompass the entire web, if need be (you can even aggregate big sources that are themselves aggregators, like Google News. Hoo nelly). Pipes can also ensure that you don’t miss content from sites like the Wall Street Journal that quickly wall their content off into subscription-only archives.

Others have come before me and done a much better job getting new users up and running on Pipes (to say nothing of the excellent built-in tutorials). It’s worth the time to dig and learn more - managing your datastream is critical. Everyone should be focused on maximizing impact and minimizing chaff.